Why getting a car history check is more important than ever

It just makes sense. A car, even if it is a used car, is the second-biggest purchase you’ll ever make (after your house; assuming you can afford one of those…). So, it pays massive dividends to know exactly what you’re getting into with any potential purchase. That’s why it’s so important to do a vehicle history check.

Now, a history check won’t verify the condition of the car as it is today — you still need to do that yourself with a thorough inspection and a test drive — but it will tell you things that can be even more significant. After all, a component that breaks can be fixed, but if a car still has outstanding finance owed on it, that’s a whole other ballgame.

Essentially, a history check digitally delves back into the history of a car and verifies — or sometimes denies — anything that’s been told you by the seller. It goes back and checks for any history of insurance write-offs, of the car having been stolen and recovered, and will also check the identity of the car itself, to help in the fight against vehicle cloning.

Why is it so important now to get a history check?

Simply because the second-hand car market has seen the values of many cars massively inflated in the past few years, especially since the pandemic. Now, those values are starting to correct, and cars are becoming a little cheaper in many cases, but whenever there’s a change in the market there’s an opportunity for unscrupulous sellers to try and turn some extra profit.

The big issue right now is outstanding finance. With more cars being sold on the basis of a loan or a PCP deal, Cartell has estimated that two-year-old, second-hand cars have a 35 per cent chance of still having finance owing, while the rate for three-year-old cars is 32 per cent. That’s a one-in-three chance that any second-hand car at which you might look to buy is still, technically, the property of a finance provider, as ownership does not transfer until the final payment has been made.

In some cases, this may well not be an issue — a seller may be selling their car in order to pay off that debt, but in some cases, there are darker forces at work, and a less scrupulous person can sell you a car that they don’t technically own. Once they stop making their repayments, the finance company will come looking for that car, and it’s theirs to repossess — you will have no legal comeback and will be both out of pocket and without a car. So, it’s really important to know that before making the buying leap.

There are other significant issues, not least that of written-off cars

Cars can be potentially written off by insurers for relatively minor damage, and it’s certainly not unknown for such cars to be properly repaired, returned to road-worthiness and sold on. However, it’s hugely important that the seller tells you this, and prices the car accordingly — a written-off car, no matter how well repaired, will always be worth a little less than a pristine equivalent. So again, it’s important to be armed with knowledge, not least because you’ll want to inspect the quality of any repair work.

That becomes even more serious when you consider the higher categories of write-offs. Categories C and D, in Ireland, can be legally and safely repaired and resold. However, if a car has been so severely damaged that it is declared Category B, then it can only be broken down for parts, and then only the undamaged parts may be sold and reused. If a car is damaged to the point of being a Category A, then it’s a legal requirement that it is to be crushed, and not even used for spares.

This becomes a little more confusing when cars that come in from the UK are involved, as UK write-offs are filed under different categories. Thankfully, the most serious categories — A and B — are the same, but the UK uses Categories S and N as the equivalents of the Irish C and D.

It’s good to know this given that we are seeing an increasing number of used imports from the UK this year, with the number of cars crossing the Irish sea increasing by 32 per cent to the end of February, compared to the same time last year. That’s 10,270 extra used cars on Irish roads, and it’s been previously estimated that as many as ten per cent of those might be previously written-off, so once again it’s vital to keep your wits about you.

The simple version of all this advice? Get it checked; don’t regret it.